The Shannara Chronicles: Lend Me Your Ear

[This is a review of The Shannara Chronicles season 1, episode 7. There will be SPOILERS.]

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The Shannara Chroniclesdelivered its darkest episode to date with a few twists and turns that you might not have seen coming. ‘Breakline’ is an apt title for this week’s outing, as our heroes are about to face their toughest challenge yet.

After their long fall from the snowy mountaintop last week, Will, Amberle and Eretria emerge relatively unharmed, but not out of harm’s way. Much like a journey through Middle-earth, there is always danger lurking around every turn and in this instance, elf hunters are the new enemy.

It’s a pretty gruesome thing for someone to slice the ears off another person, but these humans do it as easily as if they were skinning a deer. Apparently their source of income comes from selling elf ears to gnomes who believe that the ears possess some kind of power. Amberle’s ears in particular are of considerable worth due to her royal lineage, and could feed their entire tribe for months. Along their journey, Wil meets a young elf named Perk, who has recently lost his ear at the hands of these hunters and is desperate for some payback.

Perk is an unpredictable sort who has a flying animal companion that will definitely come in handy on future missions. Wil looked shocked after Perk killed one of the hunters, but who can blame him after the guy took his ear and his pet? Hopefully Perk will be around for a while; every team needs one of those loose cannons in sticky situations. Wil’s group may not be as glamorous as the fellowship in Lord of the Rings, but they should be capable enough to get the job done.

Eretria and Amberle had an interesting adventure as well, with their trip to an old high school prom. Watching Amberle look through the ancient yearbook was a nice scene as the young princess longs for happier times. Eretria, having the darker past sees everything from a negative point of view and only sees dead faces on paper. Their friendship is growing under these life threatening circumstances and it’s been fun to watch over the last couple of weeks. Once the team rescues her from the hunters (presumably next week), Eretria’s loyalty to the team should be solidified. This is all speculation of course, but in Amberle’s visions we do see Eretria standing next to Wil in front of the stained glass window.

Back with the royal family, the elven princes Ander and Arion are sent on a suicide mission by The Changeling. It’s sad that Arion finally proved his worth by sacrificing himself to save his younger brother, and yet his father will never know. Arion had been trying to escape his dead brother’s shadow, but now we’ll never see him become the great leader we know he could become. Now, Ander is tasked with ruling his people with the now fully healed and more powerful Allanon at his side.

With only three episodes left this season, things are about to get interesting. What did you think of this week’s adventure? Keep watching to see what happens next.

The Shannara Chronicles continues with ‘Utopia’ next Tuesday @10pm on MTV. Check out a preview below: